Former Henderson resident has execution set for Tuesday

In this March 16, 2011 file photo, Texas death row inmate Cleve Foster talks on a phone at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice outside Livingston, Texas. (AP Photo/Mike Graczyk, File)

HENDERSON, Ky. - For the fourth time in less than two years, a former Henderson County man has been given an execution date.

Cleve "Duke" Foster III, 48, is scheduled to be executed in a Texas prison on Tuesday in connection with the rape/murder of a 30-year-old Sudanese woman. Officials said the crime occurred in Fort Worth more than 10 years ago.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Foster's scheduled lethal injection three separate times. The last stay of execution occurred roughly a year ago and came about 2 1/2 hours before Foster, a former Army recruiter, could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.

The high court halted last September's execution while reviewing Foster's petition that he had ineffective assistance of counsel.

"Mr. Foster made his request based on two pending Supreme Court cases dealing with claims of ineffective assistance ...," according to Assistant Criminal District Attorney Steve Conder with the Tarrant County Prosecutors Office in Texas. In March, the Supreme Court denied Foster's petition, he said.

Foster's defense attorney, Maurie Levin, said an appeal has been filed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, again contending ineffectiveness of counsel.

"If they deny the appeal, we will appeal to the Supreme Court and they will issue some type of ruling before Tuesday," she said.

Foster, who grew up in Henderson and is a graduate of Henderson County High School, was one of two men convicted and sent to death row for killing Nyanuer "Mary" Pal, an immigrant from Sudan.

Her body was found in a ditch by pipeline workers in Fort Worth in February 2002.

Foster's associate, Sheldon Ward, died in prison in 2010 of cancer.

According to court documents from the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas, Foster and Ward met Pal in a bar named Fat Albert's on Feb. 13, 2002. The two men were seen interacting with Pal after she arrived at the establishment between 9 and 10 p.m.

After the bar closed around 2 a.m. on Feb. 14, a witness testified that Pal left the bar's parking lot in her vehicle and that Foster and Ward followed her "right on her bumper" in their vehicle, the court papers said.

Roughly eight hours later, Pal's nude body was found in a ditch. She'd been shot in the head, the documents said.

DNA from both men was found on Pal's body, according to the court records.

Additionally, Foster was charged with the murder of another Fort Worth woman, Rachel Urnosky, according to information provided in a previous article by Ben Leonard, a prosecutor on the case. That death occurred on Dec. 18, 2001, about six weeks before Pal's killing, officials said.

Both Pal and Urnosky were shot with the same gun, which Foster provided to police in the initial phases of the investigation into Pal's homicide, according to the documents from the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas.

"Foster admitted being in Urnosky's apartment with Ward for a sexual tryst, but claimed that they left when Urnosky asked them to leave," the court papers said.

The murder charge in connection with Urnosky's killing was dismissed after Foster was given the death penalty in connection with Pal's homicide,

Ward also was charged with Urnosky's death, but was never tried for the crime, according to media reports from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and The Star Telegram.